Toxoplasmosis: Morbid attraction to leopards in parasitized chimpanzees
Tuesday, February 9, 2016 - 10:56
in Biology & Nature
Researchers have shown that chimpanzees infected with toxoplasmosis are attracted by the urine of their natural predators, leopards, but not by urine from other large felines. The study suggests that parasite manipulation by Toxoplasma gondii is specific to each host. It fuels an ongoing debate on the origin of behavioral modifications observed in humans infected with toxoplasmosis: they probably go back to a time when our ancestors were still preyed upon by large felines.